Bringing services to the people
KwaThema – A gathering was held at KwaThema recently to bring together the community and various departments working to deal with abuse.
Stakeholders that were involved in this initiative included the Caswell Stop Abuse Movement, SAPS, KwaThema Abuse Court and the EMPD.
According to organiser of this meeting, Caswell Gxowa, the purpose of bringing these departments to the people was to inform about which departments are there to help them if they are experiencing any form of abuse.
“During our research, we have discovered that KwaThema has high stats of abuse. Hence we invited the community to know more on these various departments that are there to help them.
“Though some cases of abuse have dropped since the KwaThema Abuse Court was opened last year, we are still seeing high numbers of elderly women being raped, men being burnt with hot water by their partners and abuse of people living with disability.
“We hope that with such sessions we will be able to empower our people and that they will then be more informed and take action,” he says.
Gxowa said that people are still afraid of speaking out about domestic violence, hence they plead with them to start talking so they can get help, especially during the door-to-door campaigns they will be conducting with the police.
KwaThema police spokesperson W/O David Mphali says the police support this initiative as it deals with abuse, helps those who are vulnerable and assists to unite the police and the community.
He says it also urges men to come forward when they are abused, as they tend to keep quiet.
“Our services are open and available for all; hence men should also know that we are there for them,” says Mphali.
One of the residents who attended the gathering, Sibusiso Khumalo, says the information they received would help them to work together with these departments so they could fight crime as one team.
